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retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8120173-the-book-thief
Zusak, Markus. 2005. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN
9780375842207
PLOT SUMMARY
In 1939, while traveling on a train to her new foster
family, Liesel Meminger watches as her younger brother passes away. At his gravesite, Liesel takes a copy of The Grave Digger’s Handbook left behind
on accident and steals her first book. Tormented by nightmares about her
brother, Liesel adapts to her new home aided by the love and kindness shown to
her by her foster father who teaches her to read. Life in Nazi Germany is very precarious,
especially for a young girl who loves books and reading. When her foster-family conceals a young
Jewish man in their basement, Liesel learns that friendship and family often comes
with a heavy price.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The protagonist of the story is
Liesel Meminger who goes to live with a foster family when she is nine years
old. The antagonist of the story is the
Nazi party. The first person narrative
point of view is told by Death, who tells Liesel’s story based on what she
wrote in her book, The Book Thief. This is an essential stylistic choice because
Death is able to share story Liesel’s from her autobiography.
Additionally, Death
is able to supplement her story with details about related incidents and people
he has witnessed in other places that Liesel would have no way of knowing first
hand, but are important to the plot of her story. These details are also crucial to creating an
overview and placing Liesel story in the context of how World War II was
affecting not only Liesel and the people she knows from Molching, but how it impacted
others across Europe on a much larger scale. A unique stylistic choice, Death’s use of bold, heavy lettering
to communicate important facts and information he wishes to share is an
essential component of the story. Often
used to foreshadow events in Liesel’s story, these facts also serve as Death’s side
notes to build upon the details found in Liesel’s book.
The exposition of
the story begins as Liesel, her younger brother, Werner, and her mother travel
on a train to take the siblings to a foster home since her mother is too poor
to care for them any longer. This choice
shows the themes of family, motherhood, and poverty. Liesel watches as her brother succumbs to his
illness and passes away, demonstrating the themes of death and
illness. At the next train stop, Liesel
and her mother are allowed to get off the train and bury her brother. At her brother’s gravesite, Liesel discovers
a copy of The Grave Digger’s Handbook
has been dropped, and she takes it, committing her first book theft and introduces
the theme of theft.
The rising action
begins when Liesel arrives in Molching and meets her foster parents, Rosa and Hans
Hubermann. Liesel slowly adjusts to life
in Molching though she plagued by nightmares about her brother and worried
about the fate of her mother. She finds
comfort in the love and kindness shown to her by her foster father, Hans, who
loves to play the accordion. Liesel
struggles in her classes at school since she has difficulty reading and
displays the theme of literature and writing. When Hans begins to teach her to
read each night, they create a strong bond illustrating the theme of compassion. Liesel finds friendship and companionship with
her classmate, Rudy Steiner, who also loves her deeply, and further displays
the theme of love.
Liesel attends a
book burning celebration to honor Hitler’s birthday in 1940. The main conflict of the story is exposed
when Liesel hears one of the organizers call for Communists and Jews to be put
to death. One of the few things Liesel
knows about her father is that he was accused of being a communist. Liesel makes the connection that she lost not
only her father, but also her brother and possibly her mother because of Hitler
and the Nazis. When Hans confirms
Liesel’s suspicions, Liesel turns against Hitler and the Nazi party.
This event also
marks the second time Liesel steals a book when she rescues one from
destruction in the bonfire. This event
is also important because Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife, saw Liesel steal the
book which not only puts Liesel in jeopardy but also Liesel’s foster mother,
Rosa, who does the Hermann’s laundry.
When Liesel next takes the laundry to the Hermann’s, to Liesel’s
surprise, Ilsa does not turn her into the Nazi party.
Instead, over the
next several months, Ilsa shows kindness to her and fosters her love of books
and reading by allowing Liesel to read books from her personal library. When Ilsa is no longer able afford to pay
Rosa to do the laundry, Liesel begins to steal books from Ilsa’s library.
Shortly after the
book burning celebration, twenty-four-year-old Max Vandenburg arrives at the
Hubermann’s house seeking refuge from persecution by the Nazi party because he
was Jewish. When Hubermann’s take Max
and house him in their basement, they are determined to protect even though they
are all in peril if anyone finds out which displays the theme of courage. Max and Liesel develop a friendship which becomes
a source of healing for both and illustrates the theme of comfort.
The rising action
continues when the town of Molching finally becomes a target of the inevitable bombings
by the Allies. During the first air raid, Liesel begins to
read to the inhabitants of the bomb shelter and helps calm everyone as they
endure the first bombing. This night marks
the beginning of a special bonding experience for not only Liesel, but for her
neighbors who count on her gift of words through reading to help them make it through
each successive air raid.
The rising action
escalates when a parade of Jews come through Molching in October 1942. When Hans tries to give food to one of the
prisoners, his actions put the entire household in jeopardy. Max decides to leave and try to find a way to
hide somewhere else. Shortly afterward,
Hans is conscripted into the German army for his actions.
With both Max and
Hans gone away, Rosa and Liesel try to carry on some sense of normalcy in their
lives. Liesel begins to steal food with
Rudy. One night, Rosa decides to show
Liesel the gift Max left for her. Max had
taken a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf,
painted over the pages, and wrote his own story instead, calling it The Word Shaker. There are a handful of illustrations to
accompany the text contained in The Word Shaker.
The style of the pencil drawings shows Max’s
attempts to convey his thoughts and feelings.
Several of the pictures give the realistic impression of a drawing with
the words of a book coming through underneath the paint on which they are
drawn.
Next, Hans breaks
his leg and is sent home to recover from his injury. As the war continues to rage on around them, another
group of Jews is marched through Molching on their way to Dachau. Still searching for Max, Liesel discovers he
is in this latest group and bravely runs out to him.
She briefly reunites with Max and starts to march with him
until the soldiers push her back. Liesel
runs back out and when finds Max again, she stops and begins to recite the book he
wrote. As Max and Liesel speak the lines
of the book to each other, soldiers arrive and begin to whip them both. When Max is forced to continue marching,
Liesel tries to run after him only to be stopped by Rudy, an action which likely saves her
life.
After Liesel
recovers from her injuries, she takes Rudy out into the forest and finally
tells him the secret her family had been keeping. Angry and hurt, Liesel decides to go to
Ilsa’s for another book. After she takes
her anger and frustration out on a book and destroys it, she leaves Ilsa an
apology note that said she wanted to kill the words.
The rising action
continues when a couple of days later, Ilsa arrives at Liesel’s home and gives
her a lined notebook to write her own words instead. Inspired, Liesel heads to the basement to
begin writing. Meanwhile, all around
her, the air raid become more frequent, and war gets closer to her home. Ten days after she started writing her book,
she finished her story.
The climax of the
story occurs one night, when Liesel is in her basement reading the last
sentence of her story as her neighborhood in Molching is bombed, and everyone
around her is killed in their sleep. The
falling action begins when Liesel and her book are pulled from the rubble of
her home. In a state of shock, Liesel
drops her book. The resolution of the
story occurs as Death tells the tale of what happened to Liesel after she was
pulled from the rubble. He explains how
Liesel sees the bodies of the people she loves and cares about the most. With each person, he reveals Liesel’s
heartbreaking goodbyes, especially those for Rudy, Rosa, and Hans. As Liesel is taken away by Rescue
workers, Death sees her book has been thrown into the garbage truck and takes
it for himself.
In the Epilogue, Liesel has just passed away the day
before. Death discloses several facts
about Liesel that he witnessed. First,
he notes that Liesel lived a long life, and had a husband, children, and
grandchildren. After the bombing, truly
an orphan and homeless, Death reveals Ilsa Hermann took Liesel into her home
for a short period. When Rudy’s father,
Alex Steiner, returned from the war to discover his entire family was killed.
When he learned Liesel was the lone survivor, he took her into his home.
After the war ended, Alex resumed work at his tailor shop
with Liesel often helping him. In
October 1945, Max entered the tailor shop and asked for Liesel and they were reunited. Finally, when Death went to claim Liesel’s
soul, he shares that he had her walk with him. When he presented her with her book, a surprised Liesel asks Death if he
had read it, to which he replied, “Many times” (p. 550). When Liesel asks Death if he understood it,
he struggles to tell her everything he feels, and in the end, simply tells her
the only truth he knows: that he is haunted by humans.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
A 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
From School Library
Journal: “An extraordinary narrative.” -starred review
From Horn Book: “Exquisitely
written and memorably populated, Zusak's poignant tribute to words, survival,
and their curiously inevitable entwinement is a tour de force to be not just
read but inhabited.” -starred review
From Kirkus Reviews:
“Elegant, philosophical and moving...Beautiful and important.” -starred review
From Publisher’s Weekly: “This hefty volume is an achievement...a
challenging book in both length and subject...” -starred review
CONNECTIONS
Collect other Markus Zusak books to read such as:
- I Am the Messenger. ISBN 9780375836671
- Bridge of Clay. ISBN 9780375845598 (release date 10/9/2018)
- Underdogs. ISBN 9780545542593
Collect other Michael L. Printz YA winner/honor books to
read such as:
- Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. ISBN 9780312674397
- Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. ISBN 9780142424179
- Nelson, Jandy. I’ll Give You the Sun. ISBN 9780142425763
- Ruby, Laura. Bone Gap. ISBN 9780062317629
- Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. ISBN 9781442408937
- Stiefvater, Maggie. The Scorpio Races. ISBN 9780545224918
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